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Blackhawks’ Potential Gives the Fans a Reason to Cheer

CHICAGO — As fans stood for the national anthem before a game last weekend, clapping and cheering while the singer belted out the last words, they filled the United Center with noise, something that had been sorely missing during years of dismal Blackhawks games. It was excited, hopeful, vibrant, this-game-is-going-to-be-fun noise.

It rained down on a Blackhawks team perhaps too young to appreciate how remarkable this is, but most Chicago hockey fans over age 20 understand. The Blackhawks were mired in misery for most of the last decade. Crowds dwindled to 6,000 on some nights. The owner was harshly criticized for, among other things, not allowing home games to be televised if they had not sold out — meaning all of them.

“The last five years, you could have walked through here and thrown a bowling ball and not hit too many people,” the former Blackhawks great Stan Mikita said, laughing, as he soaked in the electric atmosphere of Sunday’s game against the Detroit Red Wings.

The turnaround has happened quickly, a series of events that seemed to roll off an assembly line after the death of the longtime owner William Wirtz in September, at age 77. Wirtz’s son Rocky took over and immediately began undoing years of public relations damage. The team put a suddenly mesmerizing group of young players on the ice, including last year’s first overall draft pick, 19-year-old Patrick Kane.

That has at least temporarily quieted talk of the playoffs for the Blackhawks, who have made the postseason only once since 1997, and who have not won a Stanley Cup championship since 1961. But, given the team’s recent history, its success on the ice is only part of the story. The Blackhawks actually allow local television to broadcast some of their home games.

The team has sold out four of its last five games, including Friday’s. They had a standing-room-only crowd of 21,869, a season high, on Sunday, when the Blackhawks tried unsuccessfully to beat the Red Wings for the fifth time this season. Chicago had seven regulars out with injuries against Detroit, which has the best record in the league.

Perhaps the most poignant change for the Blackhawks is the return of Mikita and his legendary teammate Bobby Hull. They were ushered back onto the scene by the team’s new president, John McDonough. Rocky Wirtz hired him in November, after 25 seasons in the Cubs’ front office, to help woo back fans.

On Sunday night, Mikita, 67, regaled a group in a luxury suite with stories of the Blackhawks’ glory days, when fans flocked to the old Chicago Stadium, and when Chicago was known as a great hockey town.

“I never looked to see if it was a sellout,” Mikita said. “There were good crowds in the old building for a long time.

“I don’t know what happened to this particular team over the past 28 years, but it changed. All of it changed. Whose fault was it? I don’t know. Was it Mr. Wirtz? It was his bat and ball.”

For his part, McDonough does not want to dwell on past problems. He grew up here as a Blackhawks fan and said he was saddened by the decline of the franchise, but he redirected any conversation that turned to William Wirtz.

“I’m not going to disparage anyone, because it doesn’t do any good,” McDonough said. “Our operative word here is potential.

He added, “Going to a Blackhawks game needs to be the event it used to be, when people were dodging cars to get into the Stadium just to hear the anthem.”

Photo

A triumphant Chicago Blackhawks team after a victory over the Predators last month.Credit
Nam Y. Huh/Associated Press

McDonough had been with the Cubs, who have not won a World Series title in 100 years but are nonetheless beloved in the city. He plans an aggressive marketing campaign for the Blackhawks, who were founded in 1926 as one of the N.H.L.’s Original Six teams. His strategy includes extensive public appearances by his young players. He said that next season, all of the team’s games should be televised.

On the ice, the Blackhawks were sidetracked most seriously Jan. 1, when the spectacular rookie Jonathan Toews sprained his left knee in a game against the Los Angeles Kings. He was expected to be out for about three weeks. Toews was the team’s top draft pick in 2006, No. 3 over all, and, like Kane, he is 19. Despite the injury, Toews is in a race with Kane for the league’s best rookie; they are 1-2 in total points among rookies. Kane also leads the Blackhawks with 39 points. Toews is fourth, with 32.

“This organization, going to training camp, we knew we were going to be better,” said Blackhawks Coach Denis Savard, whose retired jersey hangs from the rafters with Hull’s and Mikita’s. “But our kids have really stepped up and made a huge impact on what’s happening here.”

Kane and Toews have become the barely shaved faces of this franchise in what seems like a blink. Their jerseys now hang prominently in store windows and have started to multiply in the stands at the United Center, where many fans still wear the numbers of Bob Probert, Jeremy Roenick and even Éric Dazé, jerseys bought long ago.

Even the baby-faced Kane has some grasp of the sad history that is being changed by his team.

“You hear about things, like the past couple of years when the arena was dead and there wasn’t too much attention on the team,” Kane said. “Now myself and Jonathan have come in and the fans seem a little bit more interested in the team. It’s pretty fun to be a part of, fun to be a piece of the puzzle.”

That puzzle has an almost entirely new set of pieces, including a small fleet of young players migrating from the minors. The longest-tenured player on the team is forward Tuomo Ruutu, who is in his fourth full season in Chicago.

“It’s been mentally so tough,” Ruutu said. “You pretty much know by Christmas that you’re not going to make the playoffs and you play 40 games for basically nothing. It’s so much more fun right now. I hope we keep playing the same way and keep getting a little better.”

Ruutu said he had several friends who had never been to a game. But one told him last week that he was going to the Detroit game.

Although Chicago lost to Detroit, 3-1, the game revived memories of a once-vital rivalry that packed the old Stadium and often decided the fate of the old Norris Division.

Red Wings defenseman Chris Chelios, who grew up in Chicago and played nearly nine seasons with the Blackhawks, remembers those days. When Chicago traded him to Detroit in a 1999, the franchise was well into its slide.

Chelios said he looked into the stands Sunday and was thrilled to see them filled with enthusiastic fans.

“It’s the way it should be,” he said. “It’s hopefully a sign of things to come for Chicago. They’ve got some great young players who show some promise. I think the fans know that. They’ve been through a lot for the past 10, 12 years.”

Mikita, one of those fans who have returned, revels in his new surroundings. The Blackhawks appointed him and Hull team ambassadors last month.

“We have this alumni area here,” Mikita said, gesturing toward an area of the press box reserved for former players. “But nobody ever came because we weren’t welcome. Now, you can’t get a seat.”

And they can barely hear the anthem.

A version of this article appears in print on , on page D7 of the New York edition with the headline: Blackhawks’ Potential Gives the Fans a Reason to Cheer. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe